Hostages of the ORDLO militia are currently 118 Ukrainians, said the first vice-speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, the representative of Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup of the Tripartite Contact Group Irina Gerashchenko.
"Today in the framework of the informal Minsk platform met with the OSCE coordinator in the humanitarian Minsk group Tony Frisch. They told colleagues from different factions about our work on the release of hostages. Unfortunately, at the moment, the number of hostages in ORDLO has increased, and amounts to 118 people, these are civilian and military (increased by civilians who are seized in the occupied territories, alas, and our military were detained), "Gerashchenko wrote on Your Facebook page.
According to the first vice-speaker, the SBU together with the Minsk group established the fate of several dozen such citizens.
"According to the updated information of the SBU, to date, 418 people are missing in the list of missing persons. I do not exclude that there are more missing in the course of the conflict, and we must find information about all the missing, dead, establish their fate, "- said Irina Gerashchenko.
The Ukrainian side continues to insist on attracting representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to search for the missing and examinations of the DNA of the dead. However, the fighters of ORDLO and representatives of the Russian Federation do not agree to this. That is why the Ukrainian side in the Minsk group agreed to involve the UN monitoring mission on human rights for release, with this decision all agreed.
"We really hope that this compromise solution will accelerate the liberation," Gerashchenko said..
In addition, the deputies of all factions expressed concern that the process of liberation since September 2016 was actually blocked, and called on the Minsk group to look for any ways for the speedy release of people.
OSCE Co-ordinator Tony Frisch described the efforts made by the humanitarian group to address other humanitarian issues, in particular regarding the admission of international humanitarian missions and the improvement of the work of the CPIV.
Also, Ukrainian deputies especially focused on the problems of children, inadmissibility of their involvement in armed conflicts.
In particular, the parliamentarians called on the OSCE coordinator to take a more active stance on the issue of the release of adolescents, who are still being held in the SIZO of Donetsk, and whom the OPDO representatives promised to release in December.
"Thanks to colleagues who joined the conversation, who are so sincerely support the release of the hostages and want to know the details, details, all information, to contribute in these difficult processes," summed up the first vice-speaker.